Response to Dr. Baumgartner's question:
The prominence of research on negative emotions as opposed to positives ones is not surprising to me. I believe the same is probably true with anything that is considered 'abnormal.' Students with normal frontal-lobe function and a propensity for self-regulation can typically make it through school. They can make average to above-average grades and can graduate.
This reminds me of the research and spending on different ends of the spectrum. According to Time Magazine, schools in the United States spends over $8 billion dollars educating students with intellectual disabilities. Alternately, our country only spends $800,000 on educating gifted children. Gifted students can typically get through school, make average or good grades, and graduate without incident, just like positive-emotion children.
As a teacher of Talented students, I find it more difficult to find research pertaining to teaching Gifted and Talented students than to find research on students living with disabilities. In watching the TED Talk with Shawn Achor (which made me feel positively awesome!), I feel that a multitude of positive emotion research is absolutely necessary. The 'Happiness Advantage' theory should be a call to action for scientists to research best practices for positivity as this allows the brain to be productive and rewarding!
-Jamie Hipp
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